# [spirit review] Poesia (Cachaca)



## markov (Aug 15, 2011)

This time it's cachaca - the most popular and best known spirit of Brazil, made of fermented fresh sugar cane juice. It's a sister spirit of rum, but unlike cachaca's fresh sugar cane juice, rum is made of molasses, a byproduct of sugar production. Not as popular outside of Brazil, it's known to most of us as the main ingredient of cocktail capirinha. Almost all cachacas are young spirits and perhaps unjustly, they acquired a reputation of being fairly simple spirits that can't compete with "serious" connoisseur drinks like scotch and cognac. While most of cachacas are in fact industrially made young spirits that are best used in mixers, a smaller part of cachaca production is acutally artisanal, of high quality, and produces some very fine spirits. Recently more and more distillers have started aging cachaca and now we can find varieties that are aged even over 5 years with different methods.

The cachaca to be reviewed is artisanal young spirit from Minas Gerais, one of most important regions for quality still pot cachaca production in Brazil. Being a recent product, which hit the market in 2007, it already won international golden medal for cachacas in 2009, which is a remarkable accomplishment. This cachaca is stored in neutral wooden barrels after destilation to remain unchanged by aging. It's interesting that the distiller actually produces sugar cane specifically for this cachaca, so he has full control over the ingredients. It's distilled at a small, rustic farm, that will undoubtedly grow in future years.

This cachaca comes in bottle of 70cl and it's bottled at strength of 42%. Not much to say about the packaging itself, except a minor annoyance which is a bad quality screw cap, that doesn't open or close smoothly.

Opening the bottle reveals typical sugary sweet cachaca aroma. I haven't tried that many cachacas so the following judgement is purely personal subjective opinion.

On the nose: very sweet, surprisingly rich and complex for such a young spirit. Hints of honey, caramel.
Tasting notes: very mild, very subtle taste, just a hint of sweetnes. Finish is sharp and strong, typical for young spirits. There is a very subtle an distant sour cherry aftertaste.

As all young spirits, this one too suffers a little on the taste due to it's sharpness. In spite of that, it's surprisingly easy to drink having in mind it's bottled at 42%. I haven't tried enough cachacas to give any good judgement or comparison, but I can say this is a great spirit, that easily stands on its own and doesn't need a mixer. Recommended.


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## markov (Aug 15, 2011)

An update: like rum, cachaca goes great with cigars!


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## ko4000 (May 12, 2011)

You don't hear too much about Cachacas. Interesting read, thanks for posting.


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